Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.
TODAY'S MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
The big news today was from the Cooperative Bank who cut their floating rate, the first bank ever to do that head of an OCR decision. They also cut three fixed rates. Their rates all come without 'special' conditions.
TODAY'S DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
Bank of India cut a range of term deposit rates today.
SERVICES RESILIENT
Our domestic services sector held its own in June as activity remained at a healthy level of expansion, according to the BNZ-BusinessNZ PSI survey. As BNZ noted, whether parsed by region, industry type, or firm size, every bit of the PSI was in expansion mode, which is rare.
DEAR LEADER WINS BIG AGAIN
99.97% of North Koreans reportedly turned out to vote in local ‘elections’ over the weekend. "All participants took part in the elections with extraordinary enthusiasm to cement the revolutionary power through the elections of deputies to the local people's assemblies," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said. No reports yet of what happened to the 0.03% who stayed away. The country has a population of about 25 mln, so that represents about 4,000 adults
BUILDING TOO MUCH?
The record-beating residential building boom in Australia has already reached its peak and will soon begin to run out of steam, according to industry analyst and economic forecaster, BIS Shrapnel. Current build rates in most parts of Australia exceed demand. The expected impact on prices has started to happen. Econ101.
WHOLESALE RATES FALL
NZ swap rates fell again today in a flattening trend. At the short end (1-3 years) they are down -1 to -2 bps, in the mid range (4-5 years) they are down -3 bps. Swap rates for 7 to 10 years are down -4 bps. And the 90 day bank bill rate fell by another -1 bps to 3.06%.
NZ DOLLAR HOLDS
The NZ dollar is now marginally lower at 65.1 USc, at 88.7 AUc, and 60.1 euro cents. The TWI is now back up, just over 70. Check our real-time charts here.
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16 Comments
Broken climate records:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-17/the-freakish-year-in-…
Meanwhile costs of disentangling from fossil fuels mounts and mounts:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/business/international/royal-dutch-sh…
''Over the next decade, for instance, more than 900 wells in British waters, nearly 20 percent of the total, are expected to be taken offline at a total cost of £6.4 billion, or about £7 million per well, according to Oil & Gas UK, an industry group. The organization estimates that decommissioning will cost nearly £40 billion through 2040. A large part of the cost will probably be funded by the British taxpayer.''
The poor old taxpayer - having to pay for the soaring costs of climate change AND having to pay for the costs of winding up the oil industry. What a great model the oil industry has, the ultimate in privatizing profits and socializing costs. No wonder they fight so hard to maintain the status quo (and employ so many apologists to defend the indefensible).
Ah climate doom porn. Meanwhile in the real world things are quite boring. "Insured losses from natural catastrophes totaled about $12 billion in the first half of 2015, lower than the long-term average of $15 billion, according to a report by Munich Reinsurance Co. released Tuesday.
The costliest insured natural catastrophe loss during the first six months of 2015 was a series of winter storms that hit the northeastern United States and Canada in February, Munich Re said, with insured losses of $1.8 billion and total economic losses of $2.4 billion."
All that snow when we were supposed to get runaway global warming...
"However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".
"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said."
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing…
Is this all you got? regurgitating yet again a 15 year old news piece that isnt peer reviewed science? a cherry pick.
6 quiet months of claims which considering variability is of no matter when the trend is clearly up,
http://climatecrocks.com/2015/02/02/insurance-companies-coming-to-terms…
another cherry pick.
Oh and if we look at stats how about the death tolls? http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/14/us-munich-re-catastrophes-idU…
Many in 3rd world like pakistan and india where they probably dont have life insurance so no claims are made. "The number of people killed overall rose to 16,000 in the first half of 2015 from 2,800 the year before."
Meanwhile 2015 looks like a hot year, June the warmest on record since something like 1891. Even beating the infamous 1998 record for the same month.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2015/07/14/japan-meteorologica…
As for "more snow" if this is what you imply its explained by global warming, Then of course you are not interested in the science/facts are you.
just trolling....eh.
bit pathetic really.
I fell for the bait and clicked on one of your links.
You post: Oh and if we look at stats how about the death tolls?
"The number of people killed overall rose to 16,000 in the first half of 2015 from 2,800 the year before." "
Why did all those people die Steven - a bloody earthquake in Nepal! Why didn't you finish the quote or were you just trolling? Talk about a cherry pick. Let me finish the quote for you. Or are earthquakes blamed on global warming these days?
"The number of people killed overall rose to 16,000 in the first half of 2015 from 2,800 the year before.
An earthquake in Nepal in April was the most devastating disaster, killing 8,850 people and destroying thousands of homes as well as cultural heritage sites."
Bit pathetic really...
Death rates from extreme weather events have plummeted over the last century.
"Aggregate mortality attributed to all extreme weather events globally has declined by more than
90% since the 1920s, in spite of a four-fold rise in population and much more complete reporting
of such events.
The aggregate mortality rate declined by 98%, largely due to decreased mortality in
three main areas:
Deaths and death rates from droughts, which were responsible for approximately 60% of
cumulative deaths due to extreme weather events from 1900–2010, are more than 99.9% lower
than in the 1920s.
Deaths and death rates for floods, responsible for over 30% of cumulative extreme weather
deaths, have declined by over 98% since the 1930s.
Deaths and death rates for storms (i.e. hurricanes, cyclones, tornados, typhoons), responsible
for around 7% of extreme weather deaths from 1900–2008, declined by more than 55% since
the 1970s"
Is there a trend here?
https://reason.org/files/deaths_from_extreme_weather_1900_2010.pdf
It sure is boring out there. Check out this 164 year cherry pick.
"It has been 117 months since a major hurricane, defined as a Category 3 or above, has made landfall in the continental United States, according to 2015 data from the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This is the longest span of time in which no major hurricane has struck the mainland U.S. in NOAA hurricane records going back to 1851.
The second longest time between major hurricane strikes was the eight years between 1860 and 1869—146 years ago."
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/kathleen-brown/noaa-record-117-month-ma…
The falsification of science
https://www.intellihub.com/the-falsification-of-science/
A pause in global warming? Pah, FOOLS. There was NO PAUSE
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/05/trick_cyclists_make_global_warm…
The record-beating residential building boom in Australia has already reached its peak and will soon begin to run out of steam, according to industry analyst and economic forecaster, BIS Shrapnel
It would seem the economic consultant may have omitted the impact of bank leverage, beyond the effects imposed by low interest rates. High volume and low cost funding can fuel any asset boom beyond it's necessity.
Under rules coming into force on July 1, 2016, the average risk weight on residential mortgage exposures will rise to at least 25 percent from about 16 percent, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said in a statement. That will increase the capital requirements of the biggest four banks by about A$12 billion ($8.9 billion), according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley. Read more
That's approximately one dollar of capital for every 78 dollars of issued mortgage, if Tier 1 cap regs are 8%. I wonder what the RBNZ rubber stamps as an acceptable level of self regulatory capital determination under the latest Basel rules?
china's debt balloon,
"Their corporate debt is currently at 160% of their GDP and that is twice as much as the US having deteriorated sharply in the last 5 years."
http://www.benchmarkreporter.com/china-is-in-financial-crisis-as-their-…
bound to end well.
Open Country Dairies slashes payout forecast to $3.65-$3.95. How low will Fonterra go? August 7th Board meeting could be interesting...........
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/70390574/open-country-dai…
seemed to say as much
http://www.farmingshow.com/on-demand/audio/john-wilson-chairman-of-font…
Ring any bells for NZ?
The problem is that Australia, after decades of effort to diversify, is looking ever more like a petrodollar economy of the Middle East, but without the vast horde of foreign currency reserves to fall back on when commodity prices fall.
Instead, Australians must borrow to maintain the standards of living that the country has become accustomed to, which even some Greeks will admit is unsustainable. Read more
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